1. Technical field
The present invention relates to an embroidery machine, more particularly to X-axis and Y-axis driver units for driving an embroidery frame and interlocking units of the embroidery machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an embroidery machine is a two-axis positioning control device in which an embroidery frame into which a raw cloth is fixed moves horizontally in X or Y direction, while a needle holder of a sewing machine moves up and down.
In such an embroidery machine, the precision in movement and constant speed of the embroidery frame is closely involved with the quality of the embroidery because an embroidery frame fixed with raw cloth is configured to embroider the cloth while moving in X and Y directions.
Accordingly, a servo motor, or an induction motor which can control speed is used as a power source for driving the needle holder of the embroidery machine up and down, a stepping motor which has an excellent positioning function and is easy to control is used as a power source for driving the embroidery machine in X and Y directions.
The prior art is described below with reference to the FIG. 22 to FIG. 24. First, there is provided a rectangular table 102, an embroidery frame 104 installed above the table 102 for fixing a cloth on which various patterns are embroidered, a head 106 including a plurality of needles for embroidering the cloth and installed above the embroidery frame 104, and a hook 108 installed below the table 102 opposite to the head 106 for feeding a lower thread.
In this case, an upper shaft 403 and a lower shaft 142 for transmitting power are coupled to the head 106 and the hook 108 respectively. The upper shaft 403 and lower shaft 142 are coupled to a main-shaft driver unit 401 which provides power to the shafts.
An X-axis driver unit 110 is provided on one end portion of the embroidery machine 104. The X-axis driver unit 110 is described below. A connector frame A 112 is coupled with one side of the embroidery frame 104 with slippingly placed on the table 102, and a slider 114 which is located below the table 102 and move back and forth is coupled with the lower part of the connector frame A 112. A front face of the timing belt for transmitting power is coupled with lower end portion of the slider 114, driver timing pulley 116 and follower timing pulley 118 are coupled with one end portion and other end portion of the timing belt respectively, and a shaft 120 for transmitting power is coupled with the driver timing pulley 116.
An X-axis driver motor 122 for providing power is coupled with one end portion of the shaft 120, a control unit, not shown, for transmitting commands is coupled with the X-axis driver motor 122. In addition, a guide rail 115 which serves as a guide is coupled with a lower part of the slider 114, and the driver timing pulley 116 and follower timing pulley 118 are installed rotatably at respective leading end portion and trailing end portion of the guide rail 115.
At the rear part of the embroidery frame 104 there is provided a Y-axis driver unit 120. In the Y-axis driver unit 120, a connector frame B 126 is placed on and coupled slippingly in X direction with the table 102, in the rear end portion of the embroidery frame 104, and a slider 128 moving back and forth is coupled with a lower part of the connector frame B 126.
Also, a front face of the timing belt is coupled with a lower end portion of the slider 128, and a driver timing pulley 130 and a follower gear 132 are coupled with respective leading end portion and trailing end portion of the timing belt.
A shaft 134 is coupled with the driver timing pulley 130, an Y-axis driver motor 136 for providing power is coupled with the shaft 134, then a control unit for transmitting commands is coupled with Y-axis driver motor 136.
In addition, a guide rail 138 which serves as a guide is slippingly coupled with a lower part of the slider 128, and the driver timing pulley 130 and the follower gear 132 are installed rotatably at respective leading end portion and trailing end portion of the guide rail 138.
In the meanwhile, a thread-cut drive unit 140 for cutting unnecessary threads from the head 106 and the hook 108 is located below the table 102, and the structure of the thread-cut drive unit 140 is as follows.
First, in the thread-cut drive unit 140, a driver sprocket 144 is mounted on the lower shaft 142 while winding one side of a chain 146, and a follower sprocket 148 is coupled with a shaft B 152 installed inside a case 150 in other side of the chain 146.
In addition, a cam 154 is coupled with the shaft B 152, a roller 156 is coupled slidingly with the cam 154, and a front end portion of a lever 158 is coupled with the roller 156.
Also, a hinge shaft 160 defining an axis of rotation is coupled with the center of the lever 158, and a solenoid, not shown, for applying force to attach the roller 156 to the cam 154 or to detach the roller 156 from the cam 154 is installed at the lower end portion of the hinge shaft 160.
Further, a pusher 162 for transmitting the force is vertically coupled with the rear end portion of the lever 158, a rod 164 moving back and forth is coupled with the lower end portion of the pusher 162, in this case, the rod 164 extends outwardly through the case 150.
A thread-cut shaft 166 rotating positive or reverse direction by the power transmitted at the time of moving back and forth is installed on the rod 164, a cutter A 168 rotating with the shaft 166 is coupled with the upper end portion of the thread-cut shaft 166 above the hook 108, and a cutter B 170 is located crosswise at the front end portion of the cutter A 168. At this time, the cutter B 170 is fixed to a hook base 172.
In addition, a front end portion of a shaft C 174 which transmits power is coupled to the hook 108, a follower gear 176 formed with helical gear is engaged with the rear end portion of the shaft C 174, a driver gear 178 formed with helical gear is installed at the lower shaft 142 in gear engagement with the follower gear 176.
In the meanwhile, a color-change drive unit 180 for adjusting the head to embroider in various colors is located at one end portion of the head 106 as shown in FIG. 25, the color-change drive unit 180 comprises a rod 182 moving back and forth and coupled with the one end portion of the head 106 at the same time, a block 184 moving back and forth with the rod 182 is coupled with a rear end portion of the rod 182 inside a housing 186.
Also, guide rods 188 that serve as a guide for moving back and forth are coupled slippingly with upper and lower parts of the block 184, and front and rear end portions of the guide rod 188 are coupled with the housing 186 walls respectively.
A sensor pointer 190 configured to check the range of movement of the head 106 is installed at the front part of the block 184, a roller 192 is rotatably coupled with the block 184 rear part.
While, the roller 192 is mounted in a threaded groove of a cam shaft 194 which transmits force for moving the block 184 back and forth, the cam shaft 194 is installed transversely inside the housing 186, the front and rear end portions of the cam shaft 194 are coupled rotatably with walls of the housing 186 respectively, a follower gear 196 for receiving power is coupled with a rear part of the cam shaft 194.
In addition, a driver gear 198 is coupled with a follower gear 196 in gear engagement, the driver gear 198 is coupled with a shaft 202 of a step motor 200 which provides power, and a control unit for transmitting commands is coupled with the step motor 200. In addition, a panel which is not shown is coupled with a front face of the housing 186, a plurality of sensors which are used to determine whether the color of a lower thread has changed or not by sensing the position of the sensor pointer 190 are installed on the panel, the control unit is connected to the sensors.
Next, the structure of the head is described below with reference to the FIG. 26.
First, the head 106 is coupled slippingly with an upper front face of an arm 409 through which an upper shaft 403 connected with a main-shaft driver unit 401 passes. At this time, a driver cam 413 formed with a cam groove 411 in front face thereof is mounted on the arm 409, a cam roller 415 installed on a rotating driver lever 417 is placed in the cam groove 411.
Next, a driver gear 419 is coupled with a front end portion of the driver lever 417, a thread-snatch unit 421 for drawing a single thread located above the driver gear 419 is coupled to the driver gear 419 with its rear part in gear engagement and is installed at the head 106
Further, a rear end portion of a rotating driver lever 423 is mounted on a rear face of the driver cam 413, a slider 425 is coupled with the front end portion of the driver lever 423, and a control block 427 which actuates repeatedly upward and downward is coupled with the slider 425. A needle holder shaft 429 which serves as a guide is coupled slippingly with the control block 427 and mounted vertically at the arm 409.
In addition, a fixed bracket 431 is detachably coupled with the front end portion of the control block 427 and installed at the head 106, and a needle holder 433 which is configured to move a single thread from the thread-snatch unit 421 onto the cloth and to embroider the cloth is coupled with the fixed bracket 431 and installed vertically movably at the head 106.
The operation of the prior art having such composition is described as follows.
First, operation items are inputted in the operating panel in order to embroider various patterns on a cloth, then the control unit transmits commands to the X-axis and Y-axis driver motors 122, 136 and the main-shaft driver unit.
When the X-axis driver motor 122 operates according to a command from the control unit, the driver timing pulley 116 is rotated by the positive or reverse rotation of the shaft 120, accordingly the slider 114 is moved by the timing belt which is engaged partly with the driver timing pulley 116.
The connector frame A 112 pushes or pulls the embroidery frame when the slider 114 moves back and forth as described above, at the same time, the rear part of the embroidery frame 104 moves slidingly in the connector frame B 126 which remains in a fixed position.
When the embroidery frame 104 moves like that, the driver cam 413 is rotated by a part of power transmitted through the upper shaft 403 and provided from the main-shaft driver unit 401, consequently, cam roller 415 located in the cam groove 411 of the driver cam is rotated and is moved by a width in left and right.
Therefore, the driver lever 417 is rotated to move the thread-snatch unit up and down which is coupled with the driver gear 419 in gear engagement, thereby the thread-snatch unit 421 draws a single thread above the embroidery frame 104 and feeds the single thread.
At the same time, the driver cam 413 rotates other driver lever 423, and slides the slider 425 and control block 427 up and down repeatedly on the needle holder shaft 429.
Consequently, the control block 427 causes the fixed bracket 431 and needle holder shaft 429 to move up and down together, and the single thread from the thread-snatch unit 421 to move onto the cloth and to embroider the cloth.
Further, in case the position is needed to be changed when embroidering the cloth, the Y-axis driver motor 136 is operated by a command from the control unit, then the driver timing pulley 130 is rotated in a positive or reverse direction by the rotation of the shaft 134, as a result, the timing belt which winds the driver timing pulley 130 in part moves the slider 128.
Therefore, the slider 128 pushes and pulls the connector frame B 126, and causes the embroidery frame 104 to move forward or backward, at the same time the one end portion of the embroidery frame 104 slides on the connector frame A 112 located in a fixed position
When the embroidery frame 104 moves in such a way, needles provided identically in the head as described above move up and down, to embroider on the cloth.
At the same time, a part of the power from the main-shaft driver unit 401 is transmitted through the lower shaft 142 and rotates the driver sprocket 144, thereby the power is transmitted through the chain 146 and rotates the follower sprocket 148.
Further, when the follower sprocket 148 rotates and causes the shaft B 152 and the cam 154 to rotate together, the roller 156 and the shaft B 152 are in idle state because the control unit does not transmit the operating commands to the solenoid yet and accordingly the roller 156 is not engaged with the cam 154. Therefore, the rod 164 remains at an original position and the cutter A 168 is in stationary state.
At the same time, the driver gear 178 is rotated by the rotation of the lower shaft 142 and causes the follower gear 176 which is in gear engagement with the driver gear 178 together with the shaft C 174 to rotate, so that the hook 108 coupled with the front end portion of the shaft C 174 can be rotated.
In the meanwhile, in case a single thread of other colors might be provided while embroidering the cloth, the lower thread provided previously should be cut. At this time, when an operating command is transmitted from the control unit to the solenoid, the hinge shaft 160 is raised with the lever 158 and causes the roller 156 to couple with the cam 154.
As a result of this, the roller 156 is coupled with the cam which has been in idle state, and thereby the cam 154 moves within a predetermined range and causes the lever 158 to move toward a center of the hinge shaft 160.
Therefore, when the pusher 162 installed at the rear end portion of the lever 158 moves leftward and rightward and causes the rod 164 to move forward and backward, then the thread-cut shaft 166 is rotated by the rod 164 and causes the cutter A 168 to rotate. At this time, the cutter A 168 pushes an upper thread near the needle outwardly, and draws upper and lower threads near the cloth toward the cutter B 170 and cuts the threads when returning to the previous position.
When the cutting operation is over as described above, the control unit transmits a command to the step motor 200 in the color-change driver unit 180.
When the step motor 200 is rotated in a positive or reverse direction by a command received as above and causes the follower gear 196 to rotate through the driver gear 198, then the follower gear 196 rotates the cam shift 194 and pushes or pulls the roller 192 so as to move the block 184 forward or backward on the guide rod 188.
Accordingly, the rod 182 moves forward and backward by the block and causes the head 106 to move to a position into which an upper thread of corresponding color is fed.
At this time, the center pointer 180 mounted on the front face of the block 184 is checked by any one of the plurality of sensors mounted on the panel, the information with respect to result is transmitted to the control unit and stops the operation of the step motor 200, thereby the head 106 reaches and stops at the position where the color of the upper thread is changed.
Further, while the control unit transmits the operating command to the X-axis and Y-axis driver motors so as to move the embroidery frame 104 forward and backward as described above, and at the same time causes the needle provided in the head 106 to move up and down so as to embroider the cloth.
The above-described prior art generates great vibration and noise due to its intricate construction in the interlocking units which constitutes X-axis and Y-axis driver units, and a problem in expensive production cost due to the complicated mechanical structure.
There is another problem of the low quality of the embroidery because the power transmission is performed through several steps and thereby it is not possible to control the embroidery frame precisely.
The present invention is designed to overcome the above problems of the prior art. Therefore, it is a first object of the invention to reduce the vibration and noise in the embroidery machine by simplifying the construction of the interlocking units which constitutes X-axis and Y-axis driver units, and to improve the productivity by reducing the production cost.
It is a second object of the invention to provide a more space-efficient embroidery machine by simplifying the construction of the interlocking units which constitutes X-axis and Y-axis driver units, and reducing the space required for the X-axis and Y-axis driver units.
It is a third object of the invention to simplify a power transmission procedure by installing a vertical driver unit inside each head so as to drive needles separately according to each head.
It is a fourth object of the invention to simplify a power transmission procedure and reduce operating errors of a needle holder and a hook by installing a vertical driver unit inside each head and, in addition, constructing the hook interlocked with the vertical driver unit to be driven separately from the unit.
It is a fifth object of the invention to simplify interlocking units and to reduce vibration and noise by constructing not only a needle holder and a hook but also an embroidery frame to be driven separately.
It is a sixth object of the invention to simplify interlocking units, to reduce significantly the vibration and noise of the entire embroidery machine and to perform various embroidery operations with one embroidery machine so as to maximize the effectiveness of operation and at the same time to make mass production of the embroideries possible, by disposing an embroidery frame in each head group, simplifying the construction of X-axis and Y-axis driver unit which drives the embroidery frame of each head group, and separately driving a vertical driver unit for moving a needle holder of the head, a hook, and the embroidery frame respectively.
The first object of the invention is accomplished by an embroidery machine comprising: a table; an embroidery frame placed on the table; a head located above the embroidery frame, the head having a plurality of needles; a hook installed below the table, the hook being opposite to the head; an X-axis driver unit for providing power to move the embroidery frame forward and backward in X direction; an Y-axis driver unit for providing power to move the embroidery frame forward and backward in Y direction; and a control unit for being connected to the X-axis driver unit and Y-axis driver unit.
The second object of the invention is accomplished by an embroidery machine comprising: a table; an embroidery frame slippingly placed on the table; a head located above the embroidery frame, the head having a plurality of needles; and a hook installed below the table, the hook being opposite to the head, wherein an XY system for providing power to move the embroidery frame in X and Y directions is mounted on a central portion of a rear side of the embroidery frame, a control unit is coupled to the XY system.
In addition, the second object of the invention is accomplished by an embroidery machine comprising: a table; an embroidery frame slippingly placed on the table; a head located above the embroidery frame, the head having a plurality of needles; and a hook installed below the table, the hook being opposite to the head, wherein an XY table for providing power to move the embroidery frame in X and Y directions is mounted on a central portion of a rear side of the embroidery frame, a control unit is coupled to the XY table.
The third object of the invention is accomplished by an embroidery machine comprising: a plurality of heads installed above a working table; a needle holder installed inside each head and slidingly movable up and down; a vertical driver unit for moving the needle holder up and down, the vertical driver unit being installed inside each head; and a controller for controlling a plurality of the vertical driver units.
The fourth object of the invention is accomplished by an embroidery machine comprising: a plurality of heads installed above a working table; a needle holder mounted inside each head and slidingly movable up and down; a vertical driver means mounted on one side of each head and causing the needle holder to move up and down; a plurality of hooks installed at a lower part of the needle holder and vertically opposite to the needle holder; a small-sized motor mounted at a rotatory shaft of each hook; and a controller for controlling a plurality of vertical driver means and a plurality of small-sized motors.
The fifth object of the invention is accomplished by an embroidery machine comprising: a plurality of heads installed above a working table and spaced apart each other; a needle holder installed inside each head and slidingly movable up and down; a plurality of hooks installed at a lower part of each needle holder and vertically opposite to the needle holder; a plurality of embroidery frames installed between the needle holder and the hook, and movable in X or Y direction; a guide rail disposed in X direction of each embroidery frame; an X-axis driver linear motor for moving the embroidery frame in X direction while moving along the guide rail; a guide rail disposed in Y direction of each embroidery frame; an Y-axis driver linear motor for moving the embroidery frame in Y direction while moving along the guide rail; and a controller for controlling a plurality of X-axis and Y-axis driver linear motors.
The sixth object of the invention is accomplished by an embroidery machine comprising: a plurality of heads installed in groups above a working table and spaced apart each other; a needle holder installed inside each head and slidingly movable up and down; a vertical driver means mounted on one side of each head and causing the needle holder to move up and down; a plurality of hooks installed at a lower part of each needle holder and vertically opposite to the needle holder; a small-sized motor mounted on a rotatory shaft of each hook; a plurality of embroidery frames installed on an upper surface of the working table according to each head group, and movable in X or Y direction; a guide rail disposed in X direction of each embroidery frame; an X-axis driver linear motor for moving the embroidery frame in X direction while moving along the guide rail; a guide rail disposed in Y direction of each embroidery frame; an Y-axis driver linear motor for moving the embroidery frame in Y direction while moving along the guide rail; and a controller for controlling the plurality of vertical driver means, the plurality of small-sized motors, and the plurality of X-axis and Y-axis driver linear motors.